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Tom van den Heuvel
Tom van den Heuvel (born 16 September 1999) is a Dutch professional football player who currently plays for Southampton in the Premier League. Early Life van den Heuvel was born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, where he attended Het Plein for his primary education and the Rotterdam International Secondary School. He chose not to go to university after he achieved a contract with Feyenoord. Club Career Feyenoord During a match for his school, van den Heuvel was spotted by then Feyenoord manager Fred Hutten, who was watching his son play. Hutten went up to him and asked for his phone number, however van den Heuvel was suspicious and ignored him. Later in the next day, van den Heuvel was called out of his class, and then Hutten and himself agreed on a contract for van Den Heuvel. For his first two seasons at Feyenoord, van den Heuvel didn't play in the first team, however his performances in the reserve team were sublime. Eventually, he was given a loan move so he could get some first team action. C.S. Marítimo (loan) His first loan move was a season-long move to C.S. Marítimo in the Primeira Liga. Since this move was made towards the end of the season, he only played 3 games for them. However, he got two clean sheets in these games and received one Man of the Match trophy. Excelsior (loan) His next move came at the start of the 2017/18 season, where van den Heuvel moved to Excelsior on the Dutch transfer deadline day. His season with Excelsior was rather unsuccessful, playing with an average rating of 6.48, however a purple patch in February left him with 4 consecutive clean sheets, and his performances in both those matches led him to a call-up for the Dutch National Team, and his first appearance for them came against Liechtenstein. Southampton The manager of the Netherlands only had a part time job with them, having been at Southampton for all of his career. The manager, Thomas Donaldson, was impressed with his performance against Liechtenstein and in training, and saw that he had great potential. He was signed for £11 million in 2018 at the age of 19. He went on loan again soon after. Xanthi (loan) His only loan move from Southampton was with Xanthi in the Greek Superleague. van den Heuvel was incredible during his time at the club. With an average performance of 7.99, he was on the shortlist of the Ballon D'or come 2019, while Xanthi finished the season in 2nd place, behind Olympiakos' 8th consecutive title. Return to Southampton After an injury to Southampton's first goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, van den Heuvel made his debut against Tottenham in the Community Shield, in which he saved four penalties when the match was drawn 1-1. It was after a few games of extraordinary form that van den Heuvel improved and was eventually named the first choice keeper. He has played 24 games so far this season, with his best game being occurring during Southampton's 1-1 draw with Manchester City, as van den Heuvel single-handedly kept Southampton in the game. International Career Under 21 van den Heuvel never played at any lower level than the Under 21 side. His debut came against France U21 in 2017. He went on to make 6 more appearances, before becoming part of the first team squad. Netherlands National Team After making his debut during an injury crisis against Liechtenstein, van den Heuvel has made 4 impressive games with the Netherlands in total. Career Statistics = Honours Clubs Southampton English Community Shield: 2019 Club World Championship: 2019 Individual Netherlands Best Eleven: 2020 Category:Players